The sounds of basketballs bouncing and fans cheering echoing throughout Woodside Bible Church’s gyms each Saturday for six weeks aren’t an indication of fierce rivalry, but of unity and inclusion.
Woodside Bible Church’s special needs ministry concluded the third season of its Unified Basketball League on Oct. 11.
The Unified Basketball League, or UBL, established in 2023, is made up of six teams — the Cardinals, Lakers, Spartans, Tar Heels, Wolverines and Yellow Jackets — that play a six-week season in September and October.
Each team rosters players with and without intellectual disabilities. Players represent a full spectrum of abilities, personalities, interests and ages — from 14 to 56 — yet they all come for the same reason: to have a good, inclusive time.
Scott Preisler, special needs ministry director at Woodside Bible Church, said the league exists simply because “inclusion is important.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, participation in sports helps people with special needs grow socially and build confidence, communication skills and happiness.
Preisler added that the league is meant to be a place where players with disabilities can play alongside neurotypical players — not as the focal point, but simply as equals.
“There is a lot of stuff that is just for people with disabilities,” Preisler said, “but there are not enough opportunities for them to be in community and friendship with people of all abilities.”
Such community and friendship were on full display Saturday when Lakers star Alex Teper scored the first of his game-high 18 points in a 60–59 victory.
The game happened to fall on Teper’s 24th birthday. As soon as his first shot fell, players from both teams — along with everyone in the packed bleachers — began to sing “Happy Birthday” to him in unison.
The final game of the season lined up within a day of Teper’s birthday for the second year in a row — and for the second year in a row, the whole community rallied behind him as he led the game in scoring.
It doesn’t take a special day for the community to rally together, though. Players and their families gather throughout the year, even in the offseason.
“It’s a community unlike any other,” Preisler said. “I have to pinch myself every time I remember this is my job.”
Miles Kubik has played for the Lakers each of the last two years. He now aspires to be a coach — potentially the league’s first coach with special needs — which would make not only the rosters unified, but the coaching staff too.
“I enjoy having a great time with my teammates,” Kubik said, “and I like to practice my basketball skills that will hopefully encourage me to help coach a team in the future.”
Kubik also loves the continuity of the rosters, as teams get a chance to build deeper relationships year after year.
Whether drawn in by the relationships, the basketball, the service opportunities or something else, the league gives its players, coaches and fans a picture of what unity and inclusion can look like — in sports and in life.
“It’s really inspiring,” Preisler said. “People with disabilities are told time after time that they aren’t like everyone else, or even that they’re lesser, but we have the opportunity to change that narrative through the game of basketball — to show that we are all more alike than different.”